By Stephanie Kelton, 5 Jan 2018 Budget deficits can be a very powerful weapon in the battle against poverty, inequality, economic environmental and social justice. I worry very much about the vilifying of budget deficits and the use and reliance and dependence on questions of how social spending will impact budget deficits, to the complete disregard for the impact of programs …

Excerpt from Motherboard, Feb 2018 It takes some planning to get a bike-share system right. The city of Rochester, New York put together an extensive report in 2015 studying the feasibility of a bike-share system, which made recommendations about how to make the city more bike friendly. “Providing a core network of low-stress bikeways that connect various neighborhoods will encourage success, as comfort …

On SmartCity Dive Illinois leaders announced that they have chosen vendors for the statewide smart street light program. The contract was awarded to Johnson Controls, Globetrotters Engineering and TEN Connected Solutions, according to Government Technology and others. Local governments throughout Illinois can upgrade their street lights to LED fixtures through the state’s joint purchasing program. The streetlights also can be equipped with Wi-Fi and sensors for …

April 7, 2016, This is note is part of the Connections series. You can download the PDF version of this note through this link. Synchronizing Installation with Other Public Works to Reach Underserved Areas By Arthur Foch The high cost of extending Internet service beyond urban areas and the relatively low number of potential subscribers has combined to stall the expansion of this enabling …

Tesla is collaborating with Anheuser-Busch, PepsiCo and United Parcel Service Inc to build on-site charging terminals at their facilities as part of the automaker’s efforts to roll out the vehicle next year. Details of the partnerships, which have not been disclosed previously, are still being hammered out, but include design and engineering from Tesla, the companies said. They declined to …

“We view smart cities as adaptive systems, where interaction between the city’s infrastructure and humans is modeled as a continuous feedback loop and enabled by a supporting cyber-system,” explains Hector Muñoz-Avila, professor of computer science and engineering. “The infrastructures are themselves connected sharing information, which derives from infrastructure interdependencies, enabling cities to adapt to changes to over time. This includes …

CC BY 2.0 Rick Researchers are looking to fungi to help provide a fix for crumbling infrastructure, with promising results. A quick look around at the masses of concrete used to construct buildings, roads, bridges, sidewalks, and other infrastructure reveals that it doesn’t take that long before cracks begin to appear, which if unchecked can go on to compromise the integrity …

BY EILLIE ANZILOTTI Fast Company 01.10.18 Imagining The Adaptable, Sensor-Filled Street Of The Future To get there, we need technologists to think more like urban planners, and for urban planners to think more like technologists–and for the two sectors to work together. Conversations about our future cities and streets hinge around smart, interconnected technologies: Think sensors that monitor the progress of autonomous vehicles, stoplights that …

LA Times Jan 2018 China’s heralded ‘solar highway’ closed after thieves stole one of the panels China’s solar energy-collecting highway in Jinan, which opened in December, was forced to close after thieves stole or damaged some of the solar panels. (Getty Images) Jonathan Kaiman It was supposed to be China’s grand “photovoltaic highway” — a solar energy-collecting, 0.6-mile stretch of road …